Solidarity - Hope - and "By Invitation Only"

 January 2015

Coty of Coty Farquhar Styling in Australia 
is the author of this month's topic:


BARTERING
How could/would I survive, what are my "skills"....

I could tell you about sewing, growing vegetables, 
having hens, milking cows and goats etc...,
cooking, housekeeping.....painting walls, restoring furniture....
trading with my old linen and hemp....
and if necessary I could even survive without electricity - just about.

But - having still in mind the recent incidents -
in this moment I would like to exchange my pens and pencils 
against all the kalachnikovs and weapons in the world
to turn them into ploughshares by our blacksmith.

Or.....
breeding "Peace Pigeons"....

....and sending them off to the world.

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Sorry for being rather short and serious this time.
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Please visit Marsha's blog to

read and see everyone's idea about "Bartering"

certainly more interesting than my one.

here

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SOLIDARITY

 At least 1.5 million people have marched in the centre of Paris last Sunday.

 They marched “for the Republic”, “against hatred” and  “for history”.

 

The Old and the Young, 
The White, The Brown and The Black; 
The Left and the Right.

There were old men in berets; 
young black people in baseball hats; 
Jewish people in yarmulkes; 
Muslims in headscarves.

They marched to say “I am Charlie” 

but also “I am Jewish” 

and 

“I am a flic”

 42-year-old Ahmed Merabet
who was he?
 Merabet worked at a police station in Paris' 11th Arrondissement,
near the location of Charlie Hebdo's offices.
Merabet was himself Muslim. 
Merabet, then, died at the hands of one of his own.
He gave his life to protect Charlie Hebdo's right to ridicule his religion

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Another two million marched in more than 60 similar demonstrations 

in towns and cities across the country. 

 

In the centre of the square, the statue of Marianne,
the woman who symbolises the French Republic,
was festooned with banners and French, Tunisian, Algerian and Moroccan flags.

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HOPE

Who would have thought 
that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, 
would walk through Paris four places away from 
Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority?

there is certainly HOPE!

Forty-four world leaders linked arms and walked down the Boulevard Voltaire,
 pausing for a minute’s silence 
and then again when the names of the 17 victims were broadcast over a loudspeaker. 
The victims were listed alphabetically, 
anarchist cartoonists, 
Jewish supermarket shoppers 
and police officers all mixed up together.

 

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Let me take this opportunity to remember also the Journalists 
 who have been killed/murdered worldwide 
only during the last three years:

74 Journalists Killed in 2012

70 Journalists Killed in 2013

61 Journalists Killed in 2014

"Passing the pencil"

by Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani

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"Je suis Ahmed"
'Charlie' ridiculed my faith and culture
and I died defending his right to do so

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"I do not agree with what you have to say, 

but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

Voltaire

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“Je pense, donc je suis Charlie”. 

“I think, therefore I am Charlie.”

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Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt - Hope dies last

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